Archive for March, 2024

Obit watch: March 19, 2024.

Tuesday, March 19th, 2024

Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford (USAF – ret.). NASA tribute. NASA biography page.

He was originally selected for Mercury, but was one inch too tall for the capsule.

He enrolled at what became Harvard Business School in September 1962. But on his 32nd birthday, three days after his arrival in Cambridge, he was offered a spot in NASA’s Gemini program, since he could fit into the larger capsules that would soon be launched. He put Harvard behind him.

He flew two Gemini missions, including Gemini VI (which was the first capsule to perform a space rendezvous). He flew Apollo 10, which scouted landing sites for Apollo 11. And he flew the Apollo-Soyuz mission.

He graduated in 1952 from the United States Naval Academy where, he once told Life magazine, “I stood near the top in all the engineering subjects, and in just about everything but conduct.”

David Seidler, screenwriter. I’ve been going back and forth on this one for notability reasons, but this pushed me into it:

The screenplay of “The King’s Speech” gestated with Mr. Seidler for decades. In interviews, he said he had set the project aside for years until after the death in 2002 of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, widow of George VI, who had asked him not to pursue it in her lifetime.

That’s class. That’s the kind of class you don’t see much of these days.

And the exact opposite of class, the burning in Hell watch: Andrew Crispo, art dealer and criminal.

On the night of Feb. 22, 1985, he and an employee, Bernard LeGeros, met a 26-year-old model and student from Norway named Eigil Dag Vesti. They left the club and went north, to an estate in Rockland County, N.Y., owned by Mr. LeGeros’s parents.
What happened over the next few hours is unclear; all three men were on drugs. But in the early hours of Feb. 23, Mr. Legeros shot Mr. Vesti in the back of the head, twice, with a .22-caliber rifle. Mr. Vesti was naked, save for handcuffs around his wrists and a zippered leather hood over his head.

Mr. LeGeros was arrested on March 27. The case became a tabloid sensation; the news media called it the Death Mask Murder.
Mr. Crispo denied involvement in the killing, and the police never charged him. He also never testified, despite Mr. LeGeros’s insistence that Mr. Crispo had ordered him to kill Mr. Vesti, and despite the discovery of the murder weapon at his gallery.
“I don’t shock, frankly, but one of the most surpassingly ugly things that ever happened in the art world was that Andrew Crispo got off with no charges for the murder of Eigil Dag Vesti,” the writer Gary Indiana told Interview magazine in 2020.
Two months after the Vesti murder, Mr. Crispo and Mr. LeGeros were indicted in a different case, charged with the 1984 kidnapping and torturing of a 26-year-old bartender named Mark Leslie. The case was not tried until 1988. Mr. LeGeros pleaded guilty, but Mr. Crispo was acquitted, having convinced the jury that the activity he participated in was consensual.

Crispo was convicted of tax evasion in 1986 and served three years of a five year sentence. The IRS seized his art and sold it off.

He spent some time trying to make a comeback: his house blew up, and he used settlement money from the gas company to buy more art and another house. He also planned to open a new gallery.

The gallery was set to open in mid-1999. But that May he was arrested yet again, this time for threatening to kidnap the 4-year-old daughter of a lawyer who had been involved in his bankruptcy case.
Mr. Crispo had grown irate after the lawyer’s firm, which controlled the money during his bankruptcy proceedings, delayed sending him a $2,000 check. He told the lawyer that he had photographs of her daughter at a playground, knew where she lived and would kidnap the child if the check did not arrive soon.

Mr. Crispo was convicted, and in 2000 he was sentenced to seven years in prison. He got out in 2005.

After getting out of prison a second time, in 2005, Mr. Crispo bought a co-op apartment and two ground-floor spaces in a residential tower in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, intending to open yet another gallery.
But his plans never worked out, and by 2017 he was facing bankruptcy again. He took out a series of loans from a realty company, using his co-op shares and some of his artwork as collateral. When he defaulted on the loans, the realty company took ownership of the shares.
Mr. Crispo refused to leave the apartment, and he erected a series of legal roadblocks to delay eviction. At the same time, he was growing erratic; he continued to use drugs and threw sex parties in his apartment, and on at least one occasion was seen naked and defecating in the hallway.

There’s a good account of the Eigil Dag Vesti killing in Murder Along the Way: A Prosecutor’s Personal Account of Fighting Violent Crime in the Suburbs by H. P. Jeffers and Kenneth Gribetz. Mr. Gribetz was the prosecutor in that case. (Link goes to the mass-market paperback edition, which has a slightly different title.)

Obit watch: March 18, 2024.

Monday, March 18th, 2024

David Breashears passed away on March 14th. I haven’t seen much coverage of this, but I was able to find an obit from Outside.

I think most Everest fans are familiar with him. He did several climbing documentaries, including the IMAX “Everest”.

Breashears shot Everest during 1996 climbing season, and witnessed the deadly blizzard that killed eight climbers and was later chronicled by author Jon Krakauer in the Outside feature and best-selling book Into Thin Air. Breashears helped with the rescue and recovery of climbers after the incident, and his experience led to another Everest film, the 2008 Frontline documentary Storm Over Everest. The film included interviews with survivors, video from the 1996 expedition, and recreated scenes of the storm and rescue efforts.
Speaking to Frontline, Breashears said he felt it was necessary to retell the story via film and not just words to try and help viewers understand the tragedy. “For me, to see and hear direct testimony from a person who has overcome such adversity, has survived such a difficult and stressful event, is very powerful,” he said. “There is something so much more poignant about seeing a person’s face and looking into their eyes and hearing their voice than just reading about them on a written page.”

Breashears grew up in Boulder, Colorado, and was a great rock and ice climber, turning heads early as a youth in Eldorado Canyon. As told in a 2022 story in Climbing, Breashears earned the nickname “Kloeberdanz Kid” after a speedy ascent of the challenging route Kloeberdanz, 5.11c R in Eldorado Canyon at just 18 years old. His visionary 1975 first ascents of the difficult and committing routes Krystal Klyr and Perilous Journey, both 5.11b X, with the X for great danger in the event of a fall, remain legend. Among their other mountaineering feats, in winter 1982 Breashears and Jeff Lowe made the first ascent of the 4500-foot north face of Kwangde Lho (6011 meters) via a hard and technical route on extremely steep rock and ice. The face was unrepeated until 2001.

According to Wikipedia, he also did the climbing shots for David Lee Roth’s “Just Like Paradise” video.

My latest batch of million dollar ideas.

Monday, March 18th, 2024

1. I figure this one will hold up until the estate of Frank Herbert sues me. But then again, with a sufficiently good lawyer, I’m sure we can argue a parody exemption on this one:

Seven Habits of Highly Effective Fremen.

So far, I’ve got three. I’m thinking of recruiting a collaborator to help me flesh out the book a little.

  1. Walk without rhythm, to avoid attracting the worm.
  2. Never turn your back to the opposition.
  3. Don’t get high on your own (spice) supply.

(Yes, I did see “Dune Part 2” yesterday. Why do you ask?)

2. This one may be more of a $100,000 idea than a million dollar one, as there may be geographic limitations:

Vicious Australian Animal as a Service. (VAAaaS).

For s small fee to cover animal wrangling, packaging, shipping, and our profit, we’ll send a vicious Australian animal to your “favorite” person in the world. Message optional. We’ll maintain anonymity, and you can pay in cryptocurrency.

Let’s face it. Wouldn’t you love to send that “special person” who’s been acting like a rude (word that rhymes with “glass bowl”) a box jellyfish? Or a Sydney funnel-web spider? It sends a pretty clear message, and seems to me to be much more effective than a box of fecal matter.

There may be some issues with shipping marine life, like the box jellyfish or blue-ringed octopus, but spiders should be relatively easy. It would just be a small matter of finding animal wranglers and appropriate packaging. And lawyers.

We’d probably operate on a sliding scale, based on the size of the animal. Spiders and snakes should be small and easy to ship, while koalas and drop bears would be more expensive, as they would require special handling and packaging.

(I do have some morals. For that reason, VAAaaS will not ship Tasmanian devils, as they are endangered.)

Gonzaga!

Monday, March 18th, 2024

It has been a while since I’ve done this. And, as y’all know, I have almost zero interest in basketball. But I do love saying “Gonzaga!”.

There was a lot of talk about Gonzaga being on the bubble, and possibly not even making it in to the NCAA tournament. But it looks like they’ve pulled things together, have been on kind of a tear, and are in as a lower seed.

I actually think this is good. In past years, they’ve been a top seed, which put a lot of pressure on them. The combination of them being a lower seed (less pressure) and having some momentum going makes me think this could be their year to Go. All. The. Way.

We shall see.

Firings watch.

Friday, March 15th, 2024

There’s been a lot of activity over the past two days. I guess the period between the end of the tournaments and Selection Sunday is the NCAA basketball equivalent of the NFL’s “Bloody Monday”.

Why don’t we get to it? In violation of my general rules, I’m using ESPN links mostly because I just don’t have time to go through the local papers.

Juwan Howard out today at Michigan. 8-24 this season (3-17 in conference), and an overall record in five years of 87-72.

Jerry Stackhouse fired yesterday at Vanderbilt, also after five seasons. 9-23 this season (4-14 in conference).

Jerod Haase out on Thursday at Stanford. 14-18 this season (8-12 in conference) and 126-127 overall in eight seasons.

Mike Boynton out at Oklahoma State after seven seasons. 12-20 this season (4-14 in conference).

I think that covers all the firings. If I’ve missed any, please leave me a heads-up in comments.

Happy Pi Day, everyone!

Thursday, March 14th, 2024

America’s Test Kitchen recipe for Key Lime pie (archived).

The Pi search page.

If you live in Austin or Houston, or are in town for South by So What, Tumble 22 has a really really good chocolate cream pie.

Obit watch: March 14, 2024.

Thursday, March 14th, 2024

Admiral Philippe de Gaulle has passed away at 102. He was the oldest son of Charles de Gaulle.

I’ve noted before that I don’t like doing obits for children of celebrities simply because of their birth. In that vein, I think it is important to point out that Philippe de Gaulle himself had a long history of heroism:

As a young naval officer in World War II, he fought in the English Channel and in the Atlantic; personally received the surrender of German troops in Paris occupying the Palais Bourbon, now the French Senate, in August 1944; “took part in all the battles of the Liberation,” the Elysée said; and was wounded six times.
He later became a naval pilot and fought in France’s wars in Indochina and Algeria. He ended his military service in 1982 as inspector general of the French Navy.

Robyn Bernard, actress. Other credits include “Diva”, “Simon & Simon”, and “Tour of Duty”.

Michael Culver, actor. Other credits include “Space: 1999”, “Goodbye, Mr. Chips”, “Thunderball”, and “From Russia With Love” (the last two were uncredited).

Paul Alexander, TikTok and iron lung guy.

Firings watch.

Wednesday, March 13th, 2024

Kenny Payne out as head coach of men’s baskeball at Louisville. ESPN for the archive challenged.

12-52 in two seasons, with one road win. 8-24 this season, 3-17 in conference.

Obit watch: March 12, 2024.

Tuesday, March 12th, 2024

Eric Carmen, musician. NYT (archived).

I don’t have any association with or memories of “All By Myself”, but I do remember hearing “Hungry Eyes” a lot on the radio.

Jean Allison, actress. No “Mannix”, but she did do a fair number of cop and cop adjunct shows. Other credits include “Hec Ramsey”, “McCloud”, and “Lou Grant”.

Obit watch: March 11, 2024.

Monday, March 11th, 2024

Malachy McCourt, Frank McCourt’s brother and (as the NYT puts it) “professional Irishman”.

The barrel-chested, red-bearded Mr. McCourt appeared regularly on soap operas — notably “Ryan’s Hope,” on which he had a recurring role as a barkeep — and played bit parts in several films. In the 1950s, he opened what was considered Manhattan’s original singles bar: Malachy’s, on the Upper East Side.

His IMDB page.

In 2006, he ran for governor of New York as, appropriately enough, the Green Party candidate. His opposed the war in Iraq and, as part of his environmental agenda, suggested a prohibitive levy on chewing gum. He got 42,000 votes, or about 1 percent of the total, which was enough to qualify for a distant third place. (Eliot Spitzer was the winner.)

I’m leaving out the overcoat story. Check the obit for that one.

NYT obit for David Bordwell. (Previously.)

Firings watch.

Monday, March 11th, 2024

Roberto D’Aversa has been fired as manager of Lecce. Lecce is a team in the Italian Serie A soccer league.

This is not ordinarily something I would take notice of, but the reason for his firing is interesting:

D’Aversa, 48, head-butted Verona striker Thomas Henry in the aftermath of their 1-0 home defeat on Sunday.

Hellas Verona was the opposing team, and is in 13th place in Serie A. Lecce is in 15th place.

Obit watch: March 8, 2024.

Friday, March 8th, 2024

Vice Admiral Richard Truly (US Navy – ret.), astronaut and former NASA administrator. NASA.

Mr. Truly joined NASA in 1969, but he didn’t venture into space for 12 years, when he was the pilot of the shuttle program’s second orbital flight. The success of that flight proved that NASA could safely relaunch the Columbia shuttle, seven months after its maiden flight, and safely return it to earth.

In 1983, Mr. Truly, who was a captain at the time, commanded the Challenger during its third flight, the eighth overall in the shuttle program. It took off at night and landed in darkness — a first for the program. The flight also marked a personal distinction: Captain Truly was the first American grandfather in space.

But he returned to NASA as its associate administrator in charge of the shuttle program in 1986, less than a month after the Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight due in part to launching in too cold temperatures, killing its seven-person crew, which included a teacher, Christa McAuliffe.
A month into his new job, Captain Truly said that the next shuttle would be launched only in daylight and in warm weather (the Challenger was launched at 36 degrees Fahrenheit), and that it would land in California instead of Cape Canaveral, Fla.
“I do not want you to think this conservative approach, this safe approach, which I think is the proper thing to do, is going to be a namby-pamby shuttle program,” he said. “The business of flying in space is a bold business.”
He added: “We cannot print enough money to make it totally risk-free. But we certainly are going to correct any mistakes we may have made in the past, and we are going to get it going again just as soon as we can under these guidelines.”

He remembered walking to his office on his first day as associate administrator to find people crying in the corridor “because of the pounding they had been taking in the media,” he said in a 2012 interview with the Colorado School of Mines, where he was a trustee at the time.
“By that time,” he added, “rather than an airplane accident, it had been portrayed as NASA killed its crew. It was the start of the most tumultuous engineering, political, cultural, social endeavor that I ever found myself in.”

He was appointed administrator by George H.W. Bush, but (according to the NYT) left after three years because of a dispute with “Vice President Dan Quayle and his staff at the National Space Council, of which Mr. Quayle was the chairman.”

Between 1960 and 1963, he made more than 300 landings, many of them at night, on the aircraft carriers Intrepid and Enterprise, then became a flight instructor.

His honors included the Navy Distinguished Flying Cross, the Presidential Citizens Medal and two NASA Distinguished Service Medals.

Steve Lawrence, of Steve and Eydie fame. NYT (archived).

FotB RoadRich sent over an obit for Akira Toriyama, manga guy and creator of “Dragon Ball”.

John Walker, AutoCAD and Autodesk guy.

The idiosyncratic Mr. Walker put his mark on a company that was anything but corporate in spirit. A 1992 article in The New York Times described Autodesk under Mr. Walker as “a cabal of counterculture senior programmers” who “took their dogs to work and tried to reach a consensus on strategy through endless memos sent by electronic mail.” (In those days, email was still a novelty in the business world.)
That same year, The Wall Street Journal scored a rare interview with Autodesk’s “founding genius.” The resulting article noted his quirks, including the fact that he did not allow the company to distribute his photograph in any form. He was prickly in manner during the interview, the reporter noted, and insisted that it be conducted in front of a video camera, debated each question and claimed a copyright on the conversation.